If the East Campus was a nightmare from which one could never wake, then the West Campus was a beautiful fairy tale. What was worth noting was that both the East Campus and the West Campus had been created by the same person.
Chen Ge didn't linger at the garbage transfer station. He was worried about waking up the caretaker inside again.
"I've run over to the West Campus, so there's no way Teacher Bai would chase me all the way here, right?"
Staring at the nearly three-meter-tall wall, the corner of Chen Ge's mouth curled slightly upward. He was about to embark on an entirely new experience.
"I'm not sure whether the rules from the East Campus apply over here. To be safe, I probably shouldn't stay in any one place for too long."
He quickened his pace and made his way along the shrubbery beside the wall toward the West Campus.
He hadn't gone far before he realized something was off.
Unlike the East Campus, the bushes along the roadsides here had been meticulously trimmed. The trees stood straight and tall, without a single weed in sight. From a long way off, you could easily spot anyone standing in there.
"I can't hide here, so I'll have to try a different approach." Chen Ge took out Lin Sisi's phone and panned it around the area first, confirming there were no other "people" nearby. Then he put on the work uniform he'd taken from the experimental building.
He brushed off the dust, smoothed out the wrinkles, took a deep breath, and straightened his back.
"Everyone in the East Campus calls me Lin Sisi. Each and every one of them wants to make me their scapegoat. I wonder if the people over here on the West Campus are any different from those on the east side."
As a student, one's range of activity within a school was extremely limited. Not only could teachers boss you around at will, but other students wouldn't be afraid of you either. So the moment Chen Ge entered the West Campus, his first move was to impersonate a teacher.
"Find a student who looks easy to push around and test the waters. If I can fool him, it'll prove this method works."
To this day, Chen Ge still didn't understand why the people of the East Campus called him Lin Sisi. Perhaps every living person who entered the East Campus for the first time met the same fate.
"The school's managers probably never imagined I'd run over to the West Campus. After all, the east and west campuses are separated by a high wall, and the only connection between them is a garbage dump."
Back in the East Campus, Chen Ge had constantly felt restrained, as if a pair of eyes had been watching him the entire time.
That feeling only disappeared once he climbed over the wall separating the two campuses.
He cleared his throat, took several deep breaths, and his expression turned serious.
Anyone who didn't know his background would look at him now and assume he was an stern-faced teacher of classical Chinese studies.
He placed the nail in a pocket where it would be easy to reach, then walked out of the tree line with a bag in one hand, strolling openly through the school grounds.
"It's quite lively over there."
The West Campus really was different from the East. Chen Ge had only walked a short distance before he spotted two students.
They dressed and looked exactly like students in the real world—plain and ordinary, without any distinctive features. Their faces carried a youthful innocence and a yearning for a beautiful future.
Many adults, after a few years of working life, had their sharp edges ground down, lost their edge. The light in their eyes faded, replaced mostly by exhaustion and resignation.
But students were different. Their destiny was still in their own hands. They believed that as long as they clenched their fists tight, a bright future would never slip away.
"Their mental state is so much better than the people on the East Campus. Just looking at them makes me feel younger."
After everything he had been through, Chen Ge's psychological age far exceeded his actual age.
He slowed his pace and lowered his head slightly, as though lost in thought.